Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The recent TV show has highlighted the incredible difficult work the Garda do in our communities day in, day out. The work of supporting people with mental health issues is extremely important but it is a shocking indictment of this Government that they must do so without having recourse to a suite of mental health supports. That is the case in particular for Fine Gael, which has been in power for 12 years.

The work on domestic violence again has been immense and groundbreaking in terms of coercive control in particular in my area. I cannot commend enough the work of the community gardaí, despite their shockingly low numbers and the fact they have been systematically downgraded in their role. Despite the flowery words of senior guards that all guards are community police, they know that is absolute rubbish. Community policing has a specific role and a specific skill set. I am deeply worried about the number of gardaí attached to community policing in Dublin West based on the new rosters. Gardaí are telling me that they will be reduced from an already shockingly low number of nine to around five. That would render them virtually inoperable. I ask the Minister to give an assurance that they will be brought up to full strength and to state when that will happen.

I also wish to raise the snail's pace use of technology. I say "new technology" but it is virtually obsolete by the time the Garda decide to spend money. I will give the Minister a couple of examples. Why are gardaí still using pedal cycles when electric bikes are far more efficient? It is a bizarre situation. The second issue relates to drones. The Civil Defence, the Army and the navy all use drones but the Garda does not. I acknowledge the local Safer Blanchardstown community policing forum, which has made an application to the Minister for two drones to tackle the scourge of scramblers in communities throughout Dublin 15 and Dublin 7.

Police forces throughout Britain have established specialist police units to tackle the scourge of drug dealing and antisocial behaviour by people using scramblers. When there is another tragedy, when a young person dies on a scrambler or an innocent person, young or old, is killed or seriously injured, people in government will give tea and sympathy but they now have an opportunity to provide the Garda with the resources to deal with it. I urge the Minister to give funding to the Safer Blanchardstown forum to allow the pilot anti-scrambler drone programme to proceed and for the pilot scrambler unit to have legislation that protects its members while chasing these criminals.

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